Memphis_Bill

Heh. Similar to the OP tonight - except for me it was "Nebulous Form" instead of "Shadow Cloak."

Makes Eclipse FAR less effective. And mire. And when it finally drops the phasing, it drops you too... or at least the pile of bad guys you're in the middle of will.

1. To get a level shift, you need at least Tier3 Alpha (which gives a shift that stays with you regardless.)

1a. Tier3 or 4 Lore or Destiny will also give level shifts, but only in Incarnate content. (And it's noted on those powers.) Yes, together in Incarnate content you could be a 50+3.

2. You could do it solo.... it would take prohibitively long, though. Alpha takes a while, especially with multiple characters. Fortunately shards (once you have alpha unlocked) drop from more than just level 50 mobs. Ignoring trials, you could run the WTF (weekly task force,) which would drop a notice of the well, which can convert in to threads, and drop a few shards as well. (I don't recall the entire process you'd have to go through to unlock everything.)

3. Purchasing XP - You get threads. In your Incarnate Powers menu, under Threads, you can turn them in (plus around 1 mill INF) for X amount of iXP.

3a. Is it realistic to do that? If you have the threads (or Astral/Emp merits to convert to threads) and the INF, sure. It's more realistic NOW than it was, as the INF price has gone done. I usually do it at 10% or less left.

3b. Don't do it to unlock Alpha. Run the arc. Why waste good iXP on Alpha?

Hey, I was on pinn earlier without problems.

Dammit, J_D, what'd you break? Spilled your beer on the server again, didn't you? Or did you roll that keg into a bonfire? Gah!

I know there is (or was) a Vista/Win7 gadget that read it.

Details on how to do it yourself... couldn't say.

I'm not laughing at anyone getting kicked, just to be clear.

But I do find that just... amusing in its own way. (And well worth the "Yeah, good job, devs" with full load of sarcasm.)

Well, looking at ye olde chart... there are limitations to market access and the amount of INF at various levels.

Sell now. *shrug*

There are very few people doing multiple disciplines - those that are can come up with advances by tying in things "not obvious" to one that's old news to another. (I believe Feynman was like this with matrices... they were known about and unused in a branch of mathematics, sitting around for a few decades at least, and were the precise tool he needed to solve a problem in physics.)

A renaissance (wo)man is, at the simplest, educated in a broad number of disciplines. We may think of something like you mentioned - agriculture, art, biology, etc - but they don't have to be *that* widely ranged.

An *ideal,* to me, would be someone with a good grounding in the sciences, arts and history. Someone who has a full appreciation of (for instance) music and architecture, astronomy, physics, a touch of logic/rhetoric and politics would be fair. Of course, the more overlap the easier it would be to "master" the various areas - someone with an interest in working in stone may have a knowledge (if not education) in geology, be a sculptor, and learn architecture (with an appreciation of historical buildings - history and art.)

Stepping into the more modern realm, you could probably find some without stepping away from a computer - someone doing 3d illustration and animation may have a fairly good grasp of math, of programming (depending on what they do,) of art (lighting, movement, the human figure) and architecture/history (for settings and environments.)

Frankly, I think there are more around (depending on the degree you want to look at) than you may think. The biggest quality (IMHO) would be the willingness - or even more, eagerness and desire - to learn and to expand out of your "comfort zone."

Hopped on Pinnacle, used market, ran mission, no issues. Would've done more, but stuff came in at work.